Update & Surprise

I developed a solid sinus headache while I was coding (not that unusual for me at the end of a cold) and decided to do an early update while waiting for my good friend Ibuprofen to do his damned job already. I'll be leaving work soon, so the plan is to lock myself in a closet or something at home for some zen coding time. Hopefully when I emerge tonight, like a perverted bear waking from hibernation, I'll have it all nice and finished.

On the art front, I've heard back from Arteria, and we're setting up payment for the trial commission. That'll bring our total to 2 for now. I'm still awaiting word from Ganassa and JustinianKnight, but it's to be expected due to their busy schedules.

I also took this headache break to make a slightly-prettier intro page. I also wanted to make it even clearer what stage the game is in, so potential new patrons can make the best choice for them on whether or not to support the development of AW. 

The Surprise Part!

Way back in late May or early June, when I was still planning out AW, I decided to do a couple things differently. (Well... a lot of things, but let's focus on these for now.) You may have noticed that the game uses a strange currency symbol ( Ξ ) instead of the good old $ symbol. Those of you familiar with twine may have suspected this is due to Twine's use of $ to denote story variables, but there's actually a different reason (it's actually pretty easy to use $ though). AW is set in the near future, but that future has had some interesting events happen beyond a simple improvement in technology. 

For those of you familiar with storytelling and roleplaying, you probably already know how having a wider fictional world can be important for making a setting come to life. So while none of the characters in Appletree will be doing a lot of talking about events in the wider world, much of Appletree and its residents will be informed or influenced by it. Two of the items that will have changed in the larger world is the use of cryptocurrency, and the yearly calendar. (I know an actual calendar change is ridiculously unlikely... but I think it's cool anyway!)

The  Ξ symbol is actually used for a real cryptocurrency called Ethereum, though we'll be using a different name. The calendar is a variant of the International Fixed Calendar, which has 13 months, each 4 weeks or 28 days long. (it's also awesome)

Stop Explaining. Get to the Surprise Already!

As a reward to all my patrons supporting development of the game so early on, I'll be doing something of a raffle for naming rights to the 13th month and currency. The thirteenth month falls between June and July.

Rules:

• The raffle will be based on the .csv file provided by Patreon of patrons successfully charged for September. 
• Patrons will get digital "tickets" based on their pledges. This is just for fun, so please don't feel like you need/should pledge more for better odds!
• Patrons who supported development in August will get a small bonus to their "tickets". 
• The drawing for currency name will happen first, by the 5th of October. The drawing for month name will happen later on, date TBD.
• A true random number generator will be used to pick 3 random numbers, that will be put into a Google Sheets spreadsheet to reveal the winners. You will have access to view the sheet for yourself.
• 3 people chosen will submit their suggestion, and the favorite chosen in a Patreon poll.
• The submitted names must be at least somewhat reasonable... no repeat of the Boaty McBoatface science vessel :)